Individuals frequently operate or otherwise travel in vehicles, where the environments and conditions of the vehicle operation may be varied. Generally, the amount of technologies within vehicles and available to operators has increased, where some of the technologies increase the tendency of vehicle operators to become distracted. For example, user interfaces such as display screens offer more features which may distract the vehicle operators while driving the vehicle. As another example, certain vehicles offer semi-autonomous operation in which the vehicles may be at least partially operated autonomously, which may cause vehicle operators to become less focused and/or drowsy.
However, existing vehicle technologies are limited in detecting when a vehicle operator's condition poses a safety risk, such as if the vehicle operator is distracted or drowsy. Even assuming that operator distraction or drowsiness detection is possible, actually alerting a vehicle operator that he/she is distracted or drowsy is ineffective. Accordingly, risks that occur because of operator distraction or drowsiness are not mitigated.
Accordingly, there is an opportunity for techniques to detect situations of vehicle operator distraction or drowsiness, and efficiently and effectively alert the vehicle operator accordingly.